Project Sputnik Gets a Boost

Dell Cloud Development head Barton George announced in his blog that Dell is reinvigorating its interest in Project Sputnik. Sputnik is designed to deliver a complete software development system, including a laptop computer, plus easy access to cloud resources for quick deployment of programming and testing environments. According to the Sputnik website, the project consists of:

The Device – A Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

Cloud Launcher – Lets you create “micro-cloud” environments on the laptop for testing and then deploy them to the cloud.

Profile Tool – A library of profiles for simulating various development environments and toolchains.

By combining a high-end PC with state-of-the-art developer tools and convenient cloud access, Dell hopes to build a system that will become standard equipment for busy developers. George’s announcement describes a new development effort, featuring a plan to integrate Sputnik with the Docker Linux container engine. This new investment in Sputnik could be an early indication of an emerging strategy for the newly privatized Dell, which is looking to expand its presence in niche markets that could deliver a greater potential for return than the mass-market consumer computer business.

Canonical, the corporate sponsors of Ubuntu, announced today its partnership with Dell to offer Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC) on Dell PowerEdge C2100 and C6100 servers that will ship with tested reference architectures, guides, and support from experts at Dell and Canonical.